NCD Pacing Event: VAE

This HIIN and Hospital Pacing Event will provide an opportunity to learn from and engage in dialogue with two hospital-level experts on VAE: John Gallagher, DNP, RN, CCNS, CCRN, TCRN, RRT, Trauma Program Manager at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and member of the Board of Directors for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN); and Lenard Nyangwara, MSM, RRT, Director of Pulmonary and Neurodiagnostic Services at Anne Arundel Medical Center and MD/DC Delegate for the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC). The session will briefly review best practices; discuss observed gaps within and across hospitals; provide guidance on how to address the challenges around buy-in, compliance, and monitoring; and share lessons learned.

As HIINs and hospitals continue to work to impact ventilator-associated events (VAE), themes around challenges involve the buy-in of medical leadership and the critical care committee; bundle compliance; and monitoring (i.e., what is monitored, how it’s monitored, and when). To explore these topics with hospital-level experts, this session provided an opportunity to learn from and engage in dialogue with two hospital-level experts on VAE. The session briefly reviewed best practices; discussed observed gaps within and across hospitals; provided guidance on how to address the challenges around buy-in, compliance, and monitoring; and shared lessons learned.

The guest presenters for this event were:

John Gallagher, DNP, RN, CCNS, CCRN, TCRN, RRT, Trauma Program Manager for the Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, as well as a member of the Board of Directors for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), who briefly reviewed best practices in VAE prevention and surveillance, and then discussed observed gaps and challenges, based on experiences in his own facility as well as work across the country to support other hospitals in addressing VAE

Lenard Nyangwara, MSM, RRT, Director of Pulmonary and Neurodiagnostic Services at Anne Arundel Medical Center, and MD/DC Delegate for the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC), who shared the work at his hospital to address VAE through a multifaceted approach that includes, for example, education, an improved rounding process, and engagement with the critical care committee to impact results.